Evacuation orders were issued in southern British Columbia, a province in western Canada, after heavy rains leading to flooding and landslides, local authorities reported Monday (November 15th).
"After heavy rains, landslides / flooding affected various roads in the interior of British Columbia," the province's Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure tweeted overnight Sunday through Monday.
Several highways were in fact closed there in areas already affected this summer by major forest fires.
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An urban search and rescue team was also deployed to rescue dozens of people stranded in their vehicles by landslides on a road near Agassiz, about 100 kilometers east of Vancouver, according to the report. local media. Contacted by AFP, local authorities did not immediately respond. A little further west, the city of Abbotsford has issued an evacuation order for more than a hundred homes, according to Radio Canada, because of the heavy rains which resulted in landslides and flooding in places.
The town of Merritt, 400 km to the northeast, urged residents of an area near a river to evacuate immediately and indicated that beds were available at a center to receive them.
"The heavy rain will continue this morning and weaken this afternoon," Environment Canada said in a bulletin issued around 5 a.m. local time (1 p.m. GMT), forecasting an additional 50 mm of rain after "nearly 160 mm" descended "on the central and eastern Fraser Valley."
